Algae help please

[shwthomas1975]

Morning. We have setup

an 8 gallon biocube. It’s gone through a cycle.  We have 2 clowns and have had crazy issues with diatoms for a couple weeks. And mushy algae floating around the top. Bubbles on the rock.  I tried to get a couple pictures, but not sure how they came out. We use reverse osmosis water from Walmart for water and changes. Any help on getting rid of this?  
thanks in advance. 

[brandon429]

Nothing beats this method, there's literally nothing better than full export cleaning. You can clearly see the work, the rocks cleaning and sand, plus you can track the tank outcome two years later by inspecting their posts about the tank dated after the rip clean

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-identification.707457/

 

Study

 

Then apply, post before and after pics here in this thread. We can review your biology here as follow up and the tank works perfectly. 

[brandon429]

There isn't one negative outcome of a rip clean it's all positive. We use them to rehab ten thousand dollar sps reefs. To do anything less is to select for constant recurring invasion. 

 

The key is not letting a tank go downhill. When you figure out reefing you won't need rip cleans. Rip cleans are why the oldest pico reef on the planet is still running, the alternative hasn't been found yet.

 

Imagine trying to increase your feeding rate right now in order to spurn coral growth... it would blow the system up with algae. 

 

Post rip clean is no more waste in the tank party time. Clean proteins can be bulk fed and corals grow, no algae takes over. 

 

Then, because you choose sand vs bare bottom, you'll be rip cleaning again one day. Put it off as long as you like... when ready to save the tank/ clear road roadmap shown above

 

All this is, is setting your system to the clean condition as you hunt for a way not to use this method. 

 

It doesn't help the reef to be allowed to be invaded, that's perpetuating the wrong cells

 

Communities collapse when collective benefits of a mass are robbed, when blanketed these organisms reduce your filter area markedly, your rocks retain waste in pores vs expel, all the biology backs up

 

The action above is reef dentistry

 

Rocks are teeth, that's plaque teeth above. Dentists don't use antibiotics to clean teeth, they use metal tools that rasp. They use force they use flushing all organic waste adherents out, that's what we do. Stocking clean up crews doesn't help the majority of times its an indirect action

 

Above is direct, results guaranteed

[ml86743]

7 hours ago, shwthomas1975 said:

Morning. We have setup

an 8 gallon biocube. It’s gone through a cycle.  We have 2 clowns and have had crazy issues with diatoms for a couple weeks. And mushy algae floating around the top. Bubbles on the rock.  I tried to get a couple pictures, but not sure how they came out. We use reverse osmosis water from Walmart for water and changes. Any help on getting rid of this?  
thanks in advance.

Do you have water parameters available?   Just curious. 

[patback]

Have you tested the walmart water?  Lots of times these public dispensers are not maintained properly. 

[shwthomas1975]

I had tested the Walmart water in the past, but just for nitrates. We had a horrible time when we started and it was because we were using our well water which had a ton of nitrates. I do have that saltwater test kit that does ph, ammonia, nitrous and nitrates. The only ones I use are ph and nitrates. Nitrates were at 10 or so.  And ph was 8.4. I’ll test again tomorrow. Are there other things we should be testing for?  
thanks

[Redreidy]

I would try getting water from somewhere else. 

 

I used to have ridiculous Algae problems in my tank, I was deep cleaning it one day and the tank would be covered in algae a week later. I was buying my water from a national retailer in the UK. I took the water to be tested at a specialist store a little further away as they have a testing facility (I did this because the at home test kits are way to ambiguous for me to really understand what's going on)  and it came back as being sky high in phosphates. They recommended I try a different source of Salt and RODI water which I did. Within a month my Algae issues had disappeared. 

[Murphs_Reef]

What type of rock did you start out with and how long has the tank been live?

 

Seems like if it was dry rock, your in the process now. Algae will take advantage of the free rock surface, but as the tank ages the bad stuff will recent to coralline as you introduce it via rock and frags. 

 

If it's mature rock, phosphate and or nitrates are probably feeding an algae bloom, you have poor water circulation or you need to adjust your lighting (is the tank in front of a window for example)

 

Worth testing Nitrate and Phosphate from the tank water as well as testing the source water. 

 

Either way, manually removing as much as you can and investing in a selection of snails will improve the situation visually, but you need to figure out the cause. Test, and if needed water change to reduce nutrients. 

 

 

[PJPS]

Toothbrush the rocks with a toothbrush, increase snails.  Repeat weekly until it stops.  Use a power filter in the tank to catch all the loose algae.

 

add pods, dose live phyo to feed them.  Pods are your first line algae patrol 😊